PSG - the fresh face in asset management
17 March 2014 | Investments | Asset Management | Anet Ahern, PSG Asset Management
Traditional investment wisdom has it that past performance is not a reliable guide to the future. That is true, but it does tell one about an asset manager’s potential to deliver the goods relative to its established benchmark, its peers, when adjusted for risk and how much risk it takes to do so.
According to PSG Asset Management CEO, Anet Ahern, past performance is an indication of potential, while consistency reveals a winning recipe. "A consistent risk-adjusted past performance is a distinct guide whether a company has a winning recipe, or not. It also tells us whether they are disciplined about applying it in varying market conditions.
"Over and above all this, investors should pay close attention to fees to ensure that they get value for money.”
It is against this background that The PSG Equity Fund was the top performing South African Equity Unit Trust Fund over 1 and 5 years to the end of December 2013. The Fund also delivered top quartile returns over the past 3-year period.
PSG also continues to demonstrate skill in the popular asset allocation or multi-asset class space, with the PSG Flexible Fund and PSG Balanced Funds achieving first quartile returns over 1, 3 and 5 years. In the fixed income space, the Optimal Income Fund was also in the first quartile over the last year.
"Our philosophy remains consistent and a source of comfort irrespective of market changes. We are confident that our combination of investment beliefs and most crucially, having a margin of safety in all asset classes, and low Total Expense Ratios translate into great risk-adjusted returns for our investors.
"The market is beginning to respond to our track record and is receiving growing support from financial advisers. What is even more pleasing is the significant increase in the number of new investors in our funds.”
The PSG Flexible Fund has now passed the R4 billion mark with the PSG Balanced, PSG Optimal Income, and PSG Money Market Fund larger than R2 billion. The remaining five unit trust funds are also over R1 billion in size.
"These are impressive increases for what was once a niche player in asset management, but relatively speaking, the increases are still small in comparative to the scale of other top-performing asset managers.
"In asset management, having the potential to grow presents us with a much larger investment opportunity set and more flexibility. We believe this gives us an edge,” Ahern said.
